1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to inventory control devices capable of monitoring and reporting upon the status, location and throughput of inventory in an establishment. More particularly, the invention relates to such a system especially adapted to the peculiar needs of drycleaning establishments.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A basic function of inventory control is the counting of incoming and outgoing materials, and keeping a running total. In some situations, the identity of specific articles must be monitored, making inventory control somewhat more complicated. Automation in marking, sensing and routing can present enormous cost savings over manual operations for such establishments. Although the user is always subject to equipment failure, every step at which manual functioning and decision making can be eliminated likewise avoids time loss, errors and various losses associated with human operation.
An inventory control system particularly adapted for a drycleaning store has many needs in common with the usual merchandise distribution warehouse system. Furthermore, the relatively low cost of individual transactions and cleaning operations aggravates the need to cut costs. In general, the possible revenue to be gained by processing a single article is quite small in comparison to the possible dissatisfaction which could be generated with consumers by even small percentage losses of articles and the like.
The usefulness of automated apparatus for information and process control has further benefits. Most efficient operation of a drycleaning store may require that the articles be optimally divided into batches of similar attributes which may be processed as units. For example, all articles of a given type of fabric may be best processed under certain conditions of cleaning fluid type, temperature, and the like. The operator (or his supplier) can clean the largest number of articles at the least expense by most efficiently allocating his machines and materials to reflect the particular mix of supplies being presented by the customers.
Various systems of lot accumulation, inventory reporting and other such inventory control and operation systems are known in the art. Automated systems in which digital computers are employed for counting purposes are known in connection with laundry systems. An example of such a system is shown in Wesner U.S. Pat. No. 3,876,075. In that device, customer identification and sorted article counts are processed by computer in order to assist in the allocation of lots to machines. The Wesner patent is primarily concerned with counting the articles.
In more general inventory control systems, further sophistication is known. In Block, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,478,316 inventory control in connection with a laundry or retail establishment is assisted by use of automatically-scannable tags attached to articles of clothing. The tags are scanned upon delivery of articles, whereupon the inventory count is adjusted. Block, et al., teach the usefulness of automation in laundry systems to assist in detecting dishonest clerks.
In connection with laundry systems, it has been common practice to apply a unique tag to a unit of laundry. The tag may have an alpha numeric (person-readable) indication and be merely stapled to a hem of an article of clothing. A different or more complicated indicia may also be attached to a hanger or the like, upon which the article of clothing is suspended. In any event, some form of code is needed for each article. The aforesaid patent to Block, et al., appears to involve magnetically-readable indicia.
In Glass U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,810 optically-readable indicia and alpha numeric indicia are combined in a single tag or unit for a general warehouse inventory control system. Automatic optical scanning equipment can be employed to form at least a part of the data input apparatus and, persons can verify the accuracy of processing by reviewing the alpha numeric data. Similarly, machine-readable information can be placed on the same tag with information to be read during manual distribution, for example, by the ultimate delivery person or the like. Such warehouse control systems are used to assign and operate upon article identifiers such as delivery route, day, stop, man and article number.
As disclosed in the patent to Glass, a number of printing and optical detection systems have been developed. Some systems have been developed for automatic recognition of alpha numeric characters, but it has been found that the most dependable of automatic scanning devices are not systems which rely on conventional alpha numeric characters. Instead, the least error prone and fastest automatic scanners rely upon codes generated from a coded sequence of parallel bars ("bar codes"). The bar codes are not easily decoded by humans.
The present invention is adapted to most efficiently apply a minimum of manual data input to an inventory control system especially adapted to a retail (i.e., customer-interfacing) drycleaning operation. A minimum of data is manually entered by an attendant via a keyboard having a series of keys which are uniquely intended to encode information which is peculiar to laundry operations, using a prescribed sequence and a minimum of keystrokes. The necessary data for reconciling the intake of articles and cash against inventory is provided using a particular input protocol. Article identification, customer identification, and descriptions needed for generation of cost and pricing reports are entered, and the articles to be cleaned are associated with a unique bar code indicia for later automatic or semiautomatic optical scanning and data input, whereby the progress of articles through the laundry and drycleaning system can be completely monitored.
Positive cross reference of bar codes and articles upon entry into the system, under machine control, provides optimum capability of reconciling articles, cash and inventory.
The use of written indicia bearing an automatically-scannable bar code has been known in the art, and in connection with laundries. Companies producing business forms are currently supplying forms provided with a pre-printed bar code which may be optically scanned. These supplied multiple part forms, for example a three-part receipt form having carbon paper or other multi-part impression material, are sold in sequentially-numbered supplies with a pre-printed bar code such that one or more of the forms may be associated with the laundry for later scanning.
Parts of multiple-part forms, for example, those saved for hard copies for the laundry management and the copy given to the customer as a receipt, need not be provided with bar codes. In order to identify a single customer or transaction with a single bar code, however, all the articles which that customer presents at the laundry must be somehow associated together, using an automatically optically scannable code to facilitate automatic reconciliation.
Inasmuch as the known pre-printed bar-coded forms are supplied rather than produced internally, the bar code itself must be read into the system, or a sequence number entered manually. The use of pre-printed bar code indicia can become somewhat expensive, in cost of pre-printed forms as well as time spent in using them.
Many product labels bear bar codes for product identification, which codes are predetermined for the product, and do not change from label to label. Production of unique codes for each successive label is much more difficult. A custom pre-printed bar coded form may appear to be a simple printed indicia, but the bar code is unique. While the forms may be simply printed except for the bar code, the bar code must be printed by a sophisticated automatically-advancing type printing press, generating unique bar codes. Therefore, unique printed bar codes are expensive.
In a situation in which a certain number of bar coded form parts are required, for example, one each for management, the customer and a batch container for a customer's laundry articles, the cost of pre-printed bar code labels increases. The increase may be less than proportional, but even given the relatively smaller cost per bar code of pre-printing a label having a number of bar code repetitions, the present invention reduces the cost of such pre-printed indicia even further, and allows use of a variable number of bar code repetitions. One of the greatest savings of the invention is not the cost of the indicia but the fact that the indicia cannot be lost. The automatic production of labels at the point of sale precludes the possibility that even the most automatic of inventory control systems will be defeated by unaccountable loss of pre-printed labels.
The present invention concerns a way of printing a set of bar code labels coincidentally with the individual transaction. Accordingly, there is no possible loss of labels, and therefore a much smaller possibility that unrecorded and unaccountable transactions can be performed by an attendant. The throughput and the inventory can always be reconciled with the cash. The system is programmed such that data is entered for a given unique transaction, and a unique code is produced concurrently. Only a preferred terminal can void a transaction or otherwise disregard a unique identifying code. Therefore, the possibility of pilferage is minimized.
The system of the invention uses a dot matrix printer to generate bar codes. The processor controls the code produced and the reconciliation thereof. High-quality bar codes are preferably generated in a high resolution mode of printing using the dot matrix printer. Inasmuch as preparation of truly high resolution bar codes may require several seconds using even a relatively high-speed dot matrix printer, according to the system of the invention, printing of bar codes for a transaction commences on the first keystroke, whereby the unique indicia and the articles become closely associated. The indicia may also be printed following the completion of a preceding transaction.
According to the invention, the optical scanning dependability of a bar code system is achieved in the same system which avoids the usual expense of multiple repetitions of such bar code tags. Moreover, the system and its operators are made truly accountable for each transaction and the indicia thereof. The added advantages do not impede the system. Data entry, article marking, optical detection of bar codes associated with articles, reconciliation capabilities, and all the benefits of fully automated inventory control and report generation are realized.